Cole Roberts

A look at some of the best players I’ve seen in the past few years at either U18s or U23s level or currently playing in non-league who've either left a really positive impression or whose careers I follow with genuine interest to see how they're doing every week.

Player: Cole Roberts

Age: 18

Position: Winger/Striker

Club: Bradford City

Saturday 12th February; only four months ago but it was a freezing cold morning at Rawdon Meadows where Bradford City's youth team were playing Doncaster Rovers.

The game took place on a pitch which was a trek and a half from the main building and it did no good whatsoever for my white Nike Air trainers, nor did the muddy touchline. Everyone involved will remember the game, just as much as I remember the look on Louie Chorlton’s face at a certain point, because it's the same one where the referee dished out three red cards in the same incident in the second half.

Cole Roberts celebrates the opener against Doncaster in May.
(Photo: Bradford City FC).

In the first 20 minutes, whilst sporadically glancing up towards the grey and cloudy skies to see when the 90% probability of a torrential downpour would happen (something which never actually materialised), the only thing shining bright was Bradford's left-winger/attacker.

Playing on the same side of the pitch next to where the spectators, scouts and parents were standing, he terrorised Donny's defence. His touch, movement and anticipation was clever from the first minute. His technique was decent. His link-up play was impressive. The accuracy of the balls he was floating on the switch were superb. He did plenty of small, simple but very intelligent things to pose a hell of a lot of problems and he dominated and dictated the tempo in that opening period.

Eventually, I found myself saying ‘Who the f**k is this kid?’ out of admiration!

Bradford went on to win 1-0 and, having found out his name long before the end of the first half, the player in question was Cole Roberts.

I've followed his progress in the months since and, having scored two goals in a 10-0 win over Mansfield (or TEN-NIL as the Sky Sports Videprinter might put it), he soon found himself on a hat-trick again in the final game of the Youth Alliance season at Valley Parade.

This time, playing in a central attacking position, he continued his trait for doing clever things to back up what I'd noticed previously to the point where by the latter stages I was absolutely willing him to score another goal so he could claim his free match ball, get it signed by the lads and cherish it forever.

It didn't quite happen because he was thwarted in what became an individual tussle between him and Donny 'keeper Luke Chadwick but it's no surprise to me that he already has a hat-trick to his name having bagged three times in perfect fashion against Fleetwood in the Youth Alliance Cup last October.

It's testament to both Cole's quality and characteristics that he's gone from playing youth team football as an ‘up and coming’ player then in the U15s in April 2019, to being a prominent, fully-fledged and pivotal figure in this title-winning team which is the best team that I've ever seen in the North-East Youth Alliance.

His end product is proven by the fact that he ended the campaign with a 'double-figure’ goals tally, plus quite a few assists, and I'm sure he'll be eager to do even better next year.

Assuming he is offered a pro contract, at some point he'll hopefully experience the surreal moment that every lad dreams about when they see a shirt with their name and number hanging up in the dressing room and make their first team debut. Regardless of whether that happens in the next 12 months or he goes out on loan instead, or even plays in the U19s and finds himself on a hat-trick again, I'll be following his progress with genuine interest and hope he does well.

I appreciate good players and along with quite a few others at Bradford, I've got a lot of admiration for the quality he showed in the games which I witnessed.

So stay humble, keep working hard to improve and give yourself the best chance of doing well, and also keep doing the little bits you do very effectively. A big thumbs up for making a favorable impression on that baltic morning when the referee left Louie Chorlton doing his best 'Shaggy: It Wasn't Me' impersonation to avoid a red card as well!